LIGHTING FOR BEAUTY AND FASHION VIDEO

Interviews are one of the most common threads that unite video shooters and cinematographers, for all types of projects. That’s because the interview format has a tendency to find its way into almost all forms of production at one time or another. It doesn’t matter if you’re shooting corporate, commercials or documentaries. I’ve seen the interview shot even work its way into narrative films and music videos, which might open with a character or musician giving a few sound bites in an “interview.”

Your job—which is to shoot the interview—is to light the talent in the most flattering way possible, but in a contextually appropriate way.

Let’s expand on that for a moment: What I mean by “contextually appropriate” is that the subject should be lit in a way that supports and complements what they are speaking about in their interview. It typically wouldn’t make sense to light a forensics expert talking about autopsy reports with the same